Just two years after publication, Sally Rooney's Normal People found life on the small streaming screen with a pair of electrifying leads (Paul Mescal as Connell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne) and a soundtrack just as euphoric and then melancholy and then melodramatic and then soul-crushing as the novel. The filmmakers totally nailed this one.
And capturing the tone of Rooney's novel ( a literary sensation both in Rooney's native Ireland, where the novel is set, and on this side of the pond) was no easy task.
Normal People reads like Jane Austen but with texting instead of snail mail (and that's not meant to be a dig; quite the opposite). It's a novel with such attention to its character's confused and hormonal thoughts, that a cinematic adaptation (without such internal attention) might just look, outwardly, like soft-core Oxygen network porn.
But somehow it's not softcore Oxygen porn. In fact, the series, aided no doubt by the involvement of author Sally Rooney, manages to not only convey literarily-rich character (and without showing texts or hearing thoughts), but the series also captures perfectly the tone of the novel, something like: euphoric melancholia. Not easy.
Helping them adapt tone is an original score by Stephen Rennicks and a massive Spotify-sized playlist of music. Check the songs out below in order of episode.
Episode 1
Hate Dah by Super Silly
Dear SJ by Alex Gough
Neverending Circles by Chvrches
Warped Window by Anna Mieke
Episode 2
Did It To Myself by Orla Gartland
Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap
Men Behind the Wire by The Barleycorn
Crazy World by Aslan
Horn by Nick Drake
Angeles by Elliott Smith
Episode 3
Maybe by SOAK
Hey Now (Arty Remix) by London Grammar
Gimme Life by THAN and Victoria Liv
I Never Got Off the Bus by Tebi Rex
Disco Inferno by SUPERfreak
Hate Dah by Super Silly
Havin a Party by Flipside
Only You by Yazoo
Episode 4
Atomos XI by A Winged Victory For the Sullen
Locked In by The Lock-In
Talk About Nothing (Not Your Dope Remix) by Cadre Cola
Deep Blue by Mango x MathMan featuring Lisa Hannigan
You and I by Caribou
Drop by Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
Tell Me So by The Orioles
Highs and Lows by August Roads
Undertow by Lisa Hannigan
Episode 5
La Lune by Billie Marten
Dance 4 Sorrow by Francis Lung
Go Wild by Friedberg
Nikes by Frank Ocean
Skate by Tycho
Make You Feel My Love by Ane Brun
Episode 6
Too Much by Carly Rae Jepsen
Im Happy Without You by Ann Byers
Smoke by Gia Margaret
Its Alright by delush featuring Strange Boy
I Know by August Roads
We Played Some Open Chords And Rejoiced, For The Earth Had Circled The Sun Yet Another Year by A Winged Victory For The Sullen
Episode 7
Its OK With Me by Broadway Express
Metroma by The Sei
Episode 8
Dandelion by Jealous of the Birds
Love Will Tear Us Apart by Nerina Pallot
Episode 9
Rare by Selena Gomez
Old Bear by Cloth
Klangfall by Joep Beving
99 Luft Balloons by Nena
Groovy Train by The Farm
Berlin by RY X
Scene Suspended by Jon Hopkins
Episode 10
Love Really Hurts Without You by Billy Ocean
Cannibal Tree by Yenkee
Good Times by Ellie Mae Rose
Everything I Am is Yours by Villagers
Episode 11
Breathe by CamelPhat & Cristoph featuring Jem Cooke
Strange Weather by Keren Ann
Episode 12
The Subterranean Heart by Mount Alaska
No Such Thing by Yumi and the Weather
Dogwood Blossom by Fionn Regan
Cant Move On by Wild Youth
Sometimes by Goldmund